How about FFARTTS ?? I was, and still am, a member of the local free flight club, the Kirkwood Thermaleers. This was back in the 80's and early 90's, and there were many members who were retired. I was the "kid" of the organization at that time.. They all decided to start getting together on Tuesday mornings to fun fly at Buder Park. Tuesday was picked because that seemed to be the one day of the week that no one scheduled doctor appointments on !! They would fly free flight until noonish, then most would head to the Burger King that used to be on the other side of the highway across from the Park, After lunch, then they would head back and some would fly R/C 1/2A Texaco models or keep flying free flight if the winds cooperated. Then about 2:30 to 3pm they would head home to beat rush hour traffic. After a few months of this they decided that they needed a name and someone came up with The FFARTTS !! This stands for The Free Flight Association of Retired Tuesday Thermal Seekers ! Everyone thought that was pretty funny except for Carl Fries. he thought that was not very classy, especially if you were trying to attract new interest into free flight!! Carl was the co-founder of the National Free Flight Society with Dick Black, and was a great mentor to me as I was learning the ropes if indoor and outdoor free flight, and a great friend. To me he was "Uncle Carl." The group got quite large and I got stuck on second shift about 1995, but just couldn't work Tuesday mornings into my work routine to take advantage of the group, so I cut back my F/F activities for a long time. All those guys were great people and some very good and notable free flight modelers like Chris Matsuno, Bob Mattes and Larry Coslick. There are just a few left now and no more regular Tuesday gatherings but we still get together for a "meeting" every month. i sure do miss all the other guys also. great guys and I learned a lot from all of them.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee